As the battles continue the pain and suffering starts to take its toll. The once excitement of being apart of a war is fading and now the void of emptyness of their familly and loved ones is over taking them. Moreover, as a war continues the soldiers tend to change their views and want to go home more then anything. Baumer and his men are trying to stay alive and advance their squad into the enemies territory. Baumer explains, “We crouch behind every corner, behind every barrier of barbed wire, and hurl heaps of explosives, and wonder if we will every see home again.” (137). The only thing that strives them onward is picturing themselves with their famillies. They have now realized what they have gotten themselves into. Lieutenant Adolf Albert and his men are travelling along previous battle scenes. They see all the kaos that has taken place. “Think we’re going home? whispers Jupp” (Remarque, The Road Back 5). Again this is the soldiers showing how bad they want to return home and this desire or motivation is what keeps them going. The men have seen enough death and felt enough pain for now all they want is to continue their journey towards home.
Anguish is what makes war hell on earth; this is what Paul and his men had to go through. Every night Paul and his men would fight and wonder if they would eat. Food in the German army was scarce at the time and it severely hurt the soldiers. Baumer says, “We pull in our belts tighter and chew every mouthful three times as long. Still the food does not last out; we are damnably hungry.” “...The night is unbearable. We cannot sleep…” (107). The men had never had to deal with this before in their life time. So by not eating proper and getting the proper sleep the cannot perform adquately. The Canadian Army at the battle of Ypres were also having problems getting food to all their soldiers. Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid writes, “Some rations in the nature of bread and bacon were brought up but the distribution was so haphazard that many men remained 24 hours without food”(Cassar, Beyond Courage 109). This is just showing how much pain they had to endure most nights. There was never enough food to go around and to sleep was out of the question, especially when on the front line.
As the pain of not eating and sleeping has now sufficed, the mind frequently starts to wonder. The Germans worry now whats behind every corner and are starting to get afraid. Hence, in life not knowing when you can be taken is a weird position to be put in. Anyone in the army can relate to this. Paul and Tjaden are on the front line discussing their friends tradgic loses. Paul sympothisis and says, “But our comrades are dead, we cannot help them, they have their rest – and who knows what is waiting for us?” (140) This is expressing the soldiers views towards their life. They know not what to expect. They have to live not knowing what will happen to them. And from day to day this is very stressful and unbelievably hard to coup with.
When some men are unable to coup with not knowing when their time is, they do something else to pass the time. By having new recruits come in soldiers tend to look after them, letting their mind at ease with the current situation. Each soldier shows feelings for their comrades. They take care of the new recruits and teach them the ways of survival. Kat describes, “The first recruit seems actually to have gone insane. He butts his head against the wall like a goat. We must try tonight to take him to the rear. Meanwhile we bind him, but in such a way that incase of attack he can be released at once.”(110). Paul and his men feel his pain and do not want to see him get killed. They try to help out in any way that they can in order to preserve life instead of losing it. This again is showing that they are truly not bad people and do not deserve this life.
Death, is a part in war that no one can deal with and rarely ever get over. With all the firing of bombs and guns death is inevitable. Paul and his men are attacking the British. They were pinned down for a while then decided to chase death away from them. “It is against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death with hands and helmets is hunting us down…”(113). The author is trying to get across to the reader that death comes in life form and wont stop coming until all those opposing are killed. The men were stating that now that they know where the enemy is and where they are coming from they can fight for their life.
While fighting off death one has to encounter or suffer a loss, of their own. Paul and his platoon lost a lot of men in the war. This is hard to deal with, because when you fighting for a cause your platoon becomes like a family. Paul is sitting in the trenches realizing what this war has brought and who he has lost. Paul explains, “Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying, they will have a job with Hans Krmaer’s body at the Judgement Day, piecing it together after a direct hit; Martens has no legs any more, Meyer is dead, there are a hundred and twenty wounded men lying somewhere or other…” (140). Paul is looking back at his friends lives that have been taken and wondering why this war had to take place and take the lives of so many innocent civilians. The Germans are suffering numerous casualities and now see what their desire and anguish accumalated to. The Germans are on ther way back to the base and they see part of there old platoon just lying there. Ledderhose exclaims, “There are a lot of us lying there,” “Yes,-Brandt, Muller, Kat, Haie, Baumer, Bertinck.” Ludwig says, “For Christ sake man stop.” (Remarque, The Road Back 20). The Germans who were a part of that old platoon were hurt seeing there kamerads just lying there. This is what they would have to get used to when war is involved.
Lastly, death is what Paul did not fear he did not want to die but would not be surprised when it came. All of his friends were killed or they had moved into another platoon that needed them more. Paul was alone now and was thinking about how many months and years he had been fighting. He was so alone and so without hope that he just looked out into the night. “He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come”(291). The loneleness and hardship that Paul has gone through has weakened his will to live and his hope. Paul had been killed and on that day it was so quiet on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to a single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.
Through the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, war is explained in depth by looking into these three aspects; desire, anguish and death. Clearly with desire being implemented when contrasting with war it showed what great lengths soldiers would go to; to either go home, win a battle or stay alive. Secondly, anguish was shown steadily throughout the book in many cases regarding, food, sleep and wounds. Lastly, death was a constant factor in the novel to which Paul and his men encountered and which in the end caught up with Paul and most of his men. Futhermore, desire, anguish and death distinguishes what war is really about.
Work Citied
Cassar, George. Beyond Courage, Canada: Oberon Press 1985
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany: Boston Little, Brown, And Company 1929
Remarque, Erich Maria. The Road Back, Germany: Boston Little Brown, Brown, And Company 1931
